Train services in Bradford could be crippled by strike action after rail bosses dismissed a union's claim for a 40 per cent pay rise.

Talks between Arriva Trains Northern and Transport Salaried Staff Association (TSSA), which represents station workers, hit the buffers yesterday.

While Arriva dismissed the call for a 40 per cent rise, only 24 hours earlier the firm had conceded an 18 per cent rise to its drivers.

The shortage of drivers has led to Arriva cancelling scores of trains every week - and receiving fines from the Strategic Rail Authority.

Steve Coe, spokesman for TSSA, said Arriva's offer to his members had been ''no more than we would have expected in normal circumstances''.

And he said that, unless the firm accepts the 40 per cent claim in the next two weeks, TSSA staff would be balloted over industrial action.

"Our members are just looking for a fair deal," said Mr Coe. "I understand the company needed to deal with the shortage of drivers because of the possible consequences, and it offered them a substantial increase.

"But they do not seem to realise that if our members take industrial action they will find it has an equally disruptive impact."

Mr Coe said a ticket office clerk working at an Arriva-operated station - including all of those in the Bradford district - would earn about £11,000, compared with other firms who pay more than £16,000.

The drivers' pay deal brought their average pay to about £28,000, according to train drivers' union ASLEF.

Mr Coe said his members felt they were being betrayed after having to cope with problems created by Arriva's high level of cancellations.

"They see themselves as the people who have had to deal with the irate customers whose trains don't run," he said. "But they now seem to have been told that they don't have any right to the kind of pay claim other staff in the company have enjoyed."

Arriva declined to comment.